Artist Biography: Alfred Sisley

Alfred Sisley
French, 1839-1899
By 1870, Alfred Sisley had developed a style with all the characteristics of impressionism. He shared with the impressionists a concern for the effects of light and weather, broken brushwork, a light palette of unmixed colors, and a penchant for depicting Paris and its suburbs.

The painter said that "to give life to the work of art is certainly one of the most necessary tasks of the true artist. Everything must serve this end: form, colour, surface."

He first met Claude Monet, Frédéric Bazille, and Auguste Renoir while studying at Charles Gleyre's studio in Paris. During the 1860s Sisley had several paintings accepted by the official Salon, but he joined the impressionists in 1874, showing canvases at four of their eight exhibitions. His style was partially formed by his admiration for Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and was close to that of Camille Pissarro and Monet.